CIA says lab leak most likely source of Covid outbreak
The CIA on Saturday issued a new assessment on the origins of the Covid outbreak, saying the coronavirus was “more likely” to have leaked from a Chinese laboratory than from animals.
But the intelligence agency warned that there was “low confidence” in this determination.
A spokesperson said that a “research-related origin” of the epidemic “is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting”.
The decision to release that assessment marks one of the first made by new CIA director John Ratcliffe, appointed by Donald Trump, who took over the agency on Thursday.
Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence during President Trump’s first term, has long favored the lab leak theory, which claims Covid most likely came from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The institute is a 40-minute drive from Huan Wet Market, where the first cluster of infections emerged.
In an interview with Breitbart News published Friday, Ratcliffe said he wanted the CIA to abandon its neutral stance on the origins of the virus and “get off the sidelines.”
“One of the things I’ve talked about a lot is addressing the threat from China on multiple fronts, and it goes back to why a million Americans died and the Central Intelligence Agency sat on the sidelines for five years “In not making an assessment about the origins of Covid,” he said.
“It’s a matter of one day for me.”
But officials told US media that the new assessment was not based on new intelligence and predates the Trump administration. The review was reportedly ordered in the closing weeks of the Biden administration and was completed before Trump took office on Monday.
The review given on Saturday is based on “low confidence”, meaning it lacks intelligence to support it, is inconclusive or contradictory.
There is no consensus on the cause of the Covid pandemic.
Some support a “natural origin” theory, which argues the virus spread naturally from animals, without the involvement of any scientists or laboratories.
The lab leak hypothesis has been specifically Hotly contested by scientistsMany of which say there is no definitive evidence to back it up. And China has in the past dismissed the lab claim as “political manipulation” by Washington.
Nevertheless, the once controversial theory is gaining ground among some intelligence agencies.
In 2023, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News that it was his bureau’s assessment that “the origin of the pandemic is most likely a potential lab incident”.
